True North Venture Partners

Last updated
True North Venture Partners
Typeprivate
Industryventure capital
Founded2011
Founder Michael J. Ahearn
Headquarters
Chicago, Illinois
,
US
Key people
Matthew S. Ahearn [1]

True North Venture Partners is an American venture capital firm, based in Chicago, Illinois and Phoenix, Arizona. The founder, managing partner and chairman is Michael J. Ahearn, who is also the co-founder and chairman of First Solar.

Contents

History

True North was founded in 2011 with $300 million. [2] The firm's focus is mostly on early stage companies, with investments ranging from $100,000 to $25 million, and geared towards startups across the energy, water, agriculture and waste industries. [3]

Ahearn was a former partner and president of an equity investment firm called JWMA (formerly called True North Partners, LLC), which he started with John T. Walton, son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, in 1996. JWMA Partners was one of the largest holders of First Solar stock, and Walmart invested $25 million in First Solar in 2008. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

Walmart American multinational retail corporation

Walmart Inc. is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company was founded by Sam Walton in nearby Rogers, Arkansas in 1962 and incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law on October 31, 1969. It also owns and operates Sam's Club retail warehouses.

Venture capital Form of private-equity financing

Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which have demonstrated high growth. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the firms they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. The start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are usually from high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.

Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneurs in over 900 ventures, including America Online, Amazon.com, Tandem Computers, Compaq, Electronic Arts, JD.com, Square, Genentech, Google, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, Nest, Palo Alto Networks, Synack, Snap, AppDynamics, and Twitter. By 2019 it had raised around $9 billion in 19 venture capital funds and four growth funds.

Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm. The firm is headquartered in Menlo Park, California and specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors.

Soros Fund Management Private investment firm

Soros Fund Management, LLC is a private American investment management firm. It is currently structured as a family office, but formerly as a hedge fund. The firm was founded in 1970 by George Soros and, in 2010, was reported to be one of the most profitable firms in the hedge fund industry, averaging a 20% annual rate of return over four decades. It is headquartered at 250 West 55th Street in New York.

Benchmark is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco that provides seed money to startups.

Silver Lake is an American global private equity firm focused on investments in technology, technology-enabled and related industries. Founded in 1999, the firm is one of the largest technology investors in the world. Its investment holdings have included Airbnb, Alibaba Group, Ancestry.com, Broadcom, Credit Karma, City Football Group, Dell Technologies, Endeavor, Expedia Group, Fanatics, First Advantage, Global Blue, GoDaddy, Jio, Lightbox, Motorola Solutions, NortonLifeLock, Red Ventures, Sabre Corporation, Skype, SoFi, GLG, Seagate Technology, SolarWinds, TEG, Twitter, Unity, Waymo, Weld North Education, WP Engine, Vacasa, the A-League football competition in Australia, and ZPG. Silver Lake is headquartered in Silicon Valley, and has offices in New York, London and Hong Kong.

Khosla Ventures is an American venture capital firm founded by Vinod Khosla, focused on early-stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, silicon technology, biotechnology, healthcare and clean technology sectors.

Index Ventures European worldwide venture capital firm

Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/AI, and security. Since its founding in 1996, the firm has invested in a number of companies and raised approximately $5.6 billion. Index Venture partners appear frequently on Forbes’ Midas List of the top tech investors in Europe and Israel.

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a global venture capital firm focusing on multi-stage investments in the enterprise, consumer, and health sectors. Lightspeed invests in seed, early and growth-stage companies.

Institutional Venture Partners American investment firm

Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is a US-based private equity investment firm focusing on later-stage venture capital and growth equity investments. IVP is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1980.

Flybridge Capital Partners is an early stage venture capital firm with offices in Boston and New York City.

Jim Breyer American venture capitalist (born 1961)

James W. Breyer is an American venture capitalist, founder and chief executive officer of Breyer Capital, an investment and venture philanthropy firm, and a former managing partner at Accel Partners, a venture capital firm. Breyer has invested in over 40 companies that have gone public or completed a merger, with some of these investments, including Facebook, earning over 100 times cost and many others over 25 times cost. On the Forbes 2021 list of the 400 richest Americans, he was ranked #389, with a net worth of US$2.9 billion.

Andreessen Horowitz is a private American venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

Michael J. Ahearn is an American businessman, co-founder and chairman of First Solar, and founder and managing partner of True North Venture Partners.

Marc Lore American entrepreneur (born 1971)

Marc Eric Lore is an American entrepreneur, businessman, investor, and NBA owner. In December 2021, CNBC reported that Lore is now the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of the Wonder Group. From 2016 to 2021, he was the President and CEO of Walmart U.S. eCommerce. Lore was appointed in September 2016 to lead Walmart's e-commerce division when his company Jet.com, an e-commerce website launched in 2014, was acquired by Walmart, Inc. Walmart purchased Jet for $3.3 billion. Prior to Jet, Lore was the CEO and co-founder of Quidsi, the parent company of a family of websites including Diapers.com. Quidsi was sold in 2011 to Amazon for $545 million. Lore was named regional Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in 2011, one of the "smartest people in technology" by Fortune, and dubbed the LeBron James of e-commerce by Matt Higgins.

Gregory B. Penner is an American businessman and venture capitalist. Penner was named the chairman of Walmart on June 5, 2015. He is the son-in-law of S. Robson Walton and the grandson-in-law of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart.

The Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) is a Broomfield, Colorado-based nonprofit philanthropic venture capital fund that identifies the country's best public charter schools, funds their expansion, and helps to increase their impact. CSGF is driven by a conviction that all children deserve great public schools in their communities.

Jeff Bussgang is an American entrepreneur, author and general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, a venture capital investment firm.

Michael Eisenberg American-born Israeli businessman

Michael Eisenberg is an American-born Israeli businessman, venture capitalist and author.

References

  1. "Our Team". truenorthvp.com. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
  2. Cheyney, Tom (18 July 2011). "First Solar cofounder Mike Ahearn launches $300M VC firm, True North Venture Partners". pv-tech. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  3. 1 2 Fehrenbacher, Katie (Jul 18, 2011). "A new greentech VC to pitch: Michael Ahearn & his $300M fund". gigaom.com. Retrieved 12 February 2016.